28 October 2012 8:49 PM

The game changer

Until now, such public attention as has been devoted to
the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11, in which the US
ambassador to Libya and three others were murdered, has dwelt upon on whether President
Obama had falsely blamed the attack on violent reaction to a film about Islam
even though he knew from the start that this was in fact a premeditated attack by
al Qaeda.

But now, far more devastating evidence has emerged that
not only did he indeed know from the start it was a premeditated attack, but that
for several hours after it started the White House refused to answer desperate pleas
for help by American forces trying to defend the consulate – and who died as a
result.

Despite CIA denials, Fox
News reports that that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military
back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several
hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who
also told the CIA operators twice to ‘stand down’ rather than help the
ambassador’s team.

‘Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team
who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador
Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the
shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they
were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They
were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange.
Soon after, they were again told to “stand down.”

‘Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and
made their way to the consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were
exchanged. The rescue team from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at
the consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They
could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about
midnight.

‘At that point, they called again for military support
and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The
request was denied... The fighting at the CIA annex went on
for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air
base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two
separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta
Force operators.

‘A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for
Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to
Sigonella, Italy, but they were never told to deploy. In fact, a Pentagon official
says there were never any requests to deploy assets from outside the country. A
second force that specializes in counterterrorism rescues was on hand at
Sigonella, according to senior military and intelligence sources. According to
those sources, they could have flown to Benghazi in less than two hours.’

There’s a heart-breaking interview with Ty Woods’s
father here. And just look
here
at the crass vulgarity with which Vice-President Biden apparently addressed
this bereaved father.

All this has been breaking in the US over this weekend.
So how are the in-the-tank-for-Obama media responding to these claims?
Hitherto, the mounting questions over the White House handling of the Benghazi
attack have been downplayed or even covered up. As Breitbart
reports, CBS chose to ignore its own interview with Obama by Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes on
September 12. This showed that, despite administration insistence day after day
that the Benghazi attack was caused by the protests over the film, Obama knew
from the start that, on the contrary, it had been a premeditated terrorist
attack:

‘In an interview
on Sep 12 with Obama, Obama told Kroft: “You're
right that this is not a situation that was exactly the same as what happened
in Egypt, and my suspicion is, is that there are folks involved in this who
were looking to target Americans from the start.”

‘Obama’s remarks pointed towards a premeditated attack,
in contrast to the story the White House went on to tell for weeks. CBS chose
not to air that portion of the interview with President Obama...According
to Fox News, the clip first appeared online on Oct. 19. It was embedded
Oct. 24 in an article
by CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson.

‘What CBS chose to air, instead, was President Obama’s
attack on his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, who had criticized the administration’s
apologetic response to the Cairo demonstration. Obama said Romney “seems
to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.” That portion of the interview
aired immediately,
and drove the news for days. Obama’s comment suggesting that the attack had
been premeditated was not aired.’

The Obama administration now stands accused of refusing
to come to the aid of its own forces seeking to defend its own ambassador and
consulate staff against murderous attack, thus suggesting the administration was complicit in their murder through either pusillanimity or incompetence – and then of trying to cover this up
by falsely blaming an irrelevant video. And yet, at time of writing, the mainstream
media is even now trying to ignore this. CNN is currently leading its website with the glad news that
Venezuelan President Chavez is backing Obama; NBC leads on Hurricane Sandy and Romney on
defence cuts; CBS very similar; the New
York Times in its section
on US politics is mainly preoccupied by the impact of Hurricane Sandy on
the presidential campaign; so is the Washington
Post.

I may have overlooked it, but at this moment I can’t
see any reference to the Benghazi story anywhere on the msm other than Fox. Yet it is hard to
think of a more devastating set of claims against an incumbent President. Does
anyone doubt that, if similar claims had been aired against a Republican
President at this stage of an election campaign, the mainstream media would
have gone collectively and ballistically into orbit?

‘In real time the White House, from the minute the
first bullet was fired, they watched my son, they denied his pleas for help; my
son violated his orders in order to protect the lives of at least 30 people. He
risked his life to be a hero. I wish the leadership in the White House had that
same level of moral courage...’

A sickening scandal and an electoral game-changer – but
only in any sane universe.

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Benghazi is two hours flight time by hercules delta could have parachuted into a city at night unfortunatly in real life rather than a tom clancy novel thats such a hilariously hazadous idea nobody would it.
By helicopter its 4 hours minimum and thats if they start as soon as the message gets to them.
In real life people need to wake up get weapons some sort of briefing draw up a flight plan arrange refueling tell the libyans they are coming etc etc.
The uncomfatable truth is help wasnt going to arrive in time italy is 700 miles away.
To belive that the cavlary could have come in guns blazing to save the day is ludicrous.

The only reason I can think of for not granting assistance to those folks, is that the President was concerned with possible escalation and/or collateral damage. If he used a drone, what if it killed bystanders? If he had Delta go in, what if their stray shots killed bystanders? Etc, etc. Now, I don't agree with that point of view, but I'm just trying to play devil's advocate. He is still avoiding the hard questions, and most of the media is letting him get away with it.

Interesting that the piffling anti-islamic video is being blamed for the whole incident. Is this a case of the craft politicians 'never letting a good crisis go to waste'?. The message seems to be "just look at what happens when we treat Islam with disrespect". "For the safety and security of all we must suppress criticism of Islam".

A last - a British newspaper has covered the the worst scandal the at the White House since Watergate - and this one is much worse. Not only did Obama and his commie string-pullers abandon their Ambassador and order nearby colleagues to abandon them, too, but has deflected and lied for six weeks about their treachery and cowardice in order to postpone the inevitable revelations until after the election.

What a pity this article was not on the front page of the DM, though, where it belongs.

"Chavez is backing Obama." Indeed? And the Koch brothers are backing Romney. Perhaps they think he will authorize the pipeline from Canada they want to build to reduce the reliance of their dirty business on oil from Venezuela (the - not leaky at all - pipeline across how many aquifers etc.?) The pipeline you said it was a crime against free enterprise to refuse to authorize (enterprise, maybe, but free? - no, to be paid for in bribes to politicians). Or perhaps they think Romney more likely to try again where Bush failed, in sponsoring a coup against Chavez. Perhaps Chavez thinks he has more chance of escaping a coup with Obama. He may be right, although Obama has been happy to endorse the coup in Honduras...But as ever you do your inconsiderable best to support the cons and neo-cons.

If it's such a game changer as Fox News and the tea-baggers think it is, why is the Romney campaign not bringing it up at every opportunity?
Because playing politics with dead people is the lowest form of campaigning and guaranteed to turn off the floating voters that Romney needs to win?

Fox news is using whoever wrote this article and others, to enhance their long standing Republican lean. It is what can be grabbed onto at moments before the election.
I don’t know about some of the things Pres Obama has done, but to berate him for not knowing what happened when he really did, to report that the guards of an embassy were not put through directly to him-when in fact that would not have been anywhere near the usual protocol and most assuredly did not happen, and to end by saying he was complicit in the attacks is false. None of it even makes sense so I don’t understand how anyone could actually write about it without checking facts.
This article reeks of someone who made some money to post a spectacular lie.Havn’t we had enough of this in the world?I think you all should be prosecuted.

Whoa!! Fox News AND Breitbart are reporting this? So that means the same group of people are hashing this around in a big circle while the rest of the country is obsessed with a presidential election? The reality is, this will be investigated once we decide who the next President is. I realize it may not be as valuable politically as it would be if we had an investigation 3 days before the election, but if you are waiting for that, give it up.

As far as the mainstream press, this event will be far overshadowed by the upcoming election for the next 8 days, and Fox News and Breitbart are merely speaking to an audience that was already outraged weeks ago. It is just not a big enough event for the larger media to shelve time spent on election coverage 8 days from an election.

Maybe I am wrong, but I think trying to get this investigated before the Presidential election is looking like a dead issue. Most people aren't going to be swayed by speculative investigations conducted by politically charged blogs.

I agree with the author. Obama seems to think that issuing the statement 'I did not deny requests for assistance' will put the issue to bed. Instead it raises more questions. Does this mean that Obama gave orders to assist those in the consulate and those orders were disobeyed? Or does it mean no one asked him if assistance should be given? Or does it mean he decided that someone else should handle the whole 'less than optimum' incident?

This is truly heartbreaking. And only silence from American media. Unbelievable. I'm sure if this was a sex scandal about either candidate the media would be flooding us with every tidbit of information they could find.

We had CIA drones overhead during the attack. Obama reportedly watched the attack live from the White House. They will not admit whether or not the drones were armed. That's political code: The drones were armed and they did nothing because the President chickened out.

We could have had F16 aircraft ready to strafe and bomb everything around the US Consulate buildings and annex in Benghazi in well under an hour. Two AC130 Spectre gun ships could have been on station within two hours.

All of these weapons can hit your mailbox or the rear view mirror of the car you are driving from over three miles up in the sky.

We could have had US Special Operations Forces on the ground within several hours.

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